WOYWW 302 - Calvinball

Another edition of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - see the creator of the amazing weekly event (Julia) here.

I'm still playing Calvinball with my friends over at GetitScrapped.com and one of my own rules for the game was to make a layout where the embellishment is the focal point.  And so the adventure began.  I've truly obsessed over this task: from choosing just the right story to tell, to hand making the embellishment myself. 

Yes, I've made this embellishment right down to the tomato label on top of the rosette - created in photoshop:

And THIS is why I rarely get things done quickly and why I'll never win a Calvinball competition! But this is a ton of fun - and I think I'll treasure this layout when it's done!

WOYWW 274 | The Year Long Simple Project

If any family / friends are reading this - the gift described with much pain below is a SECRET!  No talkin' k?

I'm participating in another WOYWW - this one is number 274 - wow!  Check out Julia's post who started this long running blog sensation here: Stamping Ground.

This is something different on my workdesk today, something which should have been fun, but has turned out to be a year of torture!  You see, a very dear childhood/neighborhood friend had a great idea.  He sent me a fishing fly that my grandpa tied and gave to him many many years ago.  My grandpa has well since passed and dear friend thought it would be a great idea if I could make something out of the fly for my brother's birthday ... he sent this in May 2013.  Dear friend even sent me money for supplies.  Brother's birthday was in August 2013.  Two birthdays have passed.  My dear friend still speaks to me, but he must think I'm weird, or troubled, or not really a crafter. Just pretending to be.

I was stuck - really stuck on what to do with it.  My original idea was shot down by dear friend.  At which point I knew I was making something that dear friend actually had opinions and ideas about.  That's what froze me.  I not only needed to make something I would like or my brother would like, but dear friend had to (rightfully) like it too.

Yikes.

Then finally it all came to mind.  Almost 1-1/2 years later I got a very simple idea and I'm hoping it will work.  Dear friend approves.  Whew.

I'm taking a graduation-type frame and am hanging the fly where the tassel would normally be.  The photo area will hold two sepia toned photos of my grandpa fishing from the 1930's.  I searched on ebay for gold foil fish that would look gorgeous with the sepia and will probably place one in between the photos.  I'm keeping it all very simple and will show you the finished project soon.

My biggest problem has been getting proper sepia tone copies of the beautiful sepia toned photos I have.  Every effort to reproduce them has given them a reddish brown color.  It is this yellowish/brownish/gold that I'm looking for:

I'll take any hints you may have for getting this done.  I've been trying on my own home printer and that could be the problem.  Next stop is a pro shop ... if they still exist.  Or perhaps I'm just being picky and that's why this has taken me 1-1/2 years to finish!

| very beginning stages |

Thanks for stopping by!